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“Stop apologizing,” he insisted. “But you really didn’t have to do any of that. I had some landscapers lined up to come by and take care of these beds.”
“I know, but…,” I glanced over my shoulder, looking fondly across my little garden plot. “I wanted to.” I grabbed the book that had been guiding me off the nearby rocks where it was perched and handed it to Derek. “My mom’s diary. I found it. She wrote a lot about Silver Point and this lake here at Mullins Cove and why she loved this place. But she also wrote down all of her plans for the gardens she never had a chance to plant. I guess she planned to come back here this fall, with or without me. The timing sucks.”
I looked around the property, trying not to cry. “I wish she could have come here one last time at least,” I croaked, then quickly sucked it up and forced a smile. “I thought planting the gardens the way she wanted them was just another small thing I could do to make up for what an awful daughter I was.”
I tried to pass it off as sarcasm, but Derek could see straight through it.
“Don’t say that,” he said firmly. “She knew you loved her. We all make mistakes when we think there will always be time later to make up for it. Nothing can prepare you for losing someone long before you thought you would. Truth be told, after watching our grandparents die, it doesn’t matter how long we live for. It’s never enough time.”
He walked over and pulled me into his arms, then turned to study the freshly planted soil. “As I said, throw a layer of mulch on top, then some wood chips from the scrap pile around back. Then this baby is good to go. It will be beautiful next spring.”
“You’ll have to send me pictures,” I replied.
We both tensed up at the reminder of my limited time there, and that gnawing pang started eating me up inside again.
I reached for the diary and added, “At least I have this. It’s priceless. To hear new words and thoughts from her, I had never heard before. It makes it feel like she’s still here.”
He nodded in understanding, but his face darkened. “I found my wife’s diary a while after she was gone. But, you’re braver than me. I never had the heart to open it or read anything. I put it somewhere safe so I could give it to….” He stopped suddenly with a nervous smile. “I was going to see if her mom wanted it.”
“That’s sweet of you.” I ran my hand down his arm and smiled at the realization that he was starting to open up to me more and more. It took him forever to tell me he had lost his wife, but now that he had, I was learning more about him and his feelings every day.
I sucked in a sudden, sharp breath when I remembered we had to leave. “Oh gosh! Almost lost track of time all over again. We have to get going. Let me just run in and wash up real quick. I promise I’ll be fast.”
“Take your time. There will still be plenty of chili when we get there,” he assured me.
I laughed and took off inside the house, racing up the stairs thinking,What has gotten into me lately?When I first got to Silver Point, I felt like I was crawling in my own skin, restless and desperate for more to do and the busyness of the city. Time seemed to stretch by so slowly. And now I was losing track of it left and right, getting completely swept away by random chores and tasks I could never sit still long enough to do before.
I whined when I slid into the bathroom and saw myself in the mirror. It looked even worse than I thought. My hand lunged for the faucet and turned it on full blast so I could start scrubbing and wash up the best I possibly could in such a short amount of time. I knew Derek said not to rush, but this fair at the fire station was important to him. And he was involved in it with a booth and everything. I couldn’t stand to make him any later than I already had.
After a bunch of hurried, vicious scrubbing, I studied myself in the mirror again. “That’ll have to do,” I sighed.
With my skin washed up, I still had to take care of my clothes. I threw on the first pair of blue jeans and t-shirt I could grab from my pile of freshly folded laundry, ran my fingers through my hair, and took off with my leather jacket in hand. I was racing back out the front door to Derek in no time at all.
“I told you I wouldn’t take long.”
He turned around and smiled wide, looking me up and down again. But this time, it wasn’t because I was covered in dirt. “I like this new look of yours.”
“What new look?” I glanced over my outfit again. “I just threw these on without thinking about it. Should I dress up? Is it a more formal thing?”
He took several long, slow steps towards me and reached for my hands. “For the fair? No. But that’s just what I mean. You stopped caring so much about what you look like and all those fancy designer clothes of yours, and that’s your new look. It’s a good one.” He leaned in and growled against my ear. “It’s incredibly sexy, too.”
I draped my arms around his shoulders and felt a warm rush inside. It felt good to hear him say those kinds of things about me. The words shot straight to my core and lit me up with a hot need that only he could fulfill. It was a shame we had to get going.
I pressed my forehead to his and replied, “The sad fact is, I just ruined all my clothes trying to wash them by hand or in the machine. Apparently, you people don’t see a need for a dry cleaner.”
“Sure we do!” he cried. “Joe, the tailor. He has a shop downtown. I’ve pointed it out to you before. Everyone drops their dry cleaning off there.”
“At the tailor’s!?” I hung my head. “Now, you tell me. It’s too late now. I shrunk my wool sweaters, and the rest of it is all tattered and stretched out.”
“I don’t think Joe can help you there. But next time you come back through town with all those expensive clothes, you’ll know how to take care of them.”
I rolled my eyes and followed him out to his truck. A few minutes later, we pulled up in front of the fire station for the annual fall harvest fundraiser. It seemed like everything in Silver Point was just a few minutes away. Even things in New York that were a few minutes apart in distance could still take three times as long to get to with all the traffic and the crowds. I was still getting used to how different everything was there.
The garage bay doors of the station were all open wide, so the crowd could look around freely, and there were decorations, tables, and activities both inside and out. The fire trucks were displayed proudly out front. Apparently, the local students in town had volunteered to decorate each one in a different theme or color scheme. One booth was set up with all their uniforms and pieces of equipment that the kids could take turns trying on. A couple of the guys were overseeing a line of people who were testing out what it was like to slide down the metal poles one by one.
You could already smell the delicious chili in the air, wafting out from the kitchen. It overpowered the lingering exhaust and metallic smell that was floating around. But there were also hot dogs and burgers being grilled and funnel cakes being fried.
“This is a bigger affair than I expected,” I marveled.
